The Smashed Printing Plate of Frederick Douglass
The Smashed Printing Plate of Frederick Douglass is the 93rd episode of Legends of the Hidden Temple. It was the 85th episode to be aired. One at a time, the players on each team had to swing on a rope to reach a suspended net, climb over the net and then wade to the other side of the Moat. The second player would proceed to jump into the water, get the rope and do the same. One of the greatest crusaders for human rights was the African-American Frederick Douglass. He worked to outlaw slavery, and when the Civil War broke out, he encouraged blacks to fight in the Union Army. In 1847, Douglass founded a New York paper called The North Star; legend has it that one evening, a group of men burst into the office. "We gotta see the editor! It's a matter of life and death!" "Yeah! Hears!" "I AM the editor." "We don't like what you've been printin'... like equal rights for ALL men." "If you don't think all men are created equal, take it up with the guys that wrote the Declaration of Independence." "We didn't come here for a history lesson! We're gonna trash this place!" They moved menacingly towards one of the printing presses, but Douglass beat them to it: "You can smash this place and I'll open the paper elsewhere. Stop me and others will take my place. You came here to destroy my paper? Let me help you!" Douglass smashed the printing press himself. "You can smash machines, but you can't smash ideas." Ashamed, the men filtered out. Douglass wiped his brow and picked up a fragment of the press, which he kept for years, until it ultimately made its way to the Temple. The Red Jaguars are Dana and Jason. The Purple Parrots are Sharon and Gary. Newspaper Delivery (Galloping Machine) The first game featured the third-season horse machine, which galloped instead of spinning like the machine one year prior. However, it also pitted the boys against each other in a race to try "delivering" as many newspapers (throwing them in the designated team bin) as possible while staying on the horse. Gary fell several more times than did Jason, but this gave Jason the opportunity to throw additional newspapers— although not explicitly stated, it was probably a rule that one player had to wait until the opponent was back on the horse before throwing again. The two Jason managed to get in the bin while Gary was off the horse actually let the Red Jaguars win the first half-Pendant, with a score of 8-7 in the game. Inkwells (Cubbyhole Web) The second game was a race between Dana and Sharon to collect the most full inkwells for the newspaper within 60 seconds— some of the cubbyholes along the edges of the net contained empty inkwells instead, to slow players down. Dana's strategy of jumping down as soon as she found a full inkwell worked nicely for her; Sharon followed suit quickly, but what cost her the chance at taking the lead was missing the bin when she tried to throw one of the inkwells in; she stalled for a few seconds while Dana took the lead and eventually won 5-4, completing the first Pendant of Life for her team. Underground Railroad (Sinking Steps) The third Temple Game talked about the Underground Railroad, of which Frederick Douglass was a prominent supporter. The game with the sinking steps was used, and a platform that sank was supposed to represent a player getting caught while trying to escape. With fourteen seconds on the clock, Dana made it to the other side, but whether or not she played fair is up for debate— the Red Jaguars tried skipping the first step at least once during the game without Kirk catching them, but when she took her first step on the attempt that got her to the other side, the camera cut away before we could actually see where she landed. Nevertheless, Kirk awarded the Red Jaguars the full Pendant of Life because they were the first to get a player across, and as a result, they shut out the Purple Parrots with a score of 2 Pendants-0. Jason started by going through the Ledges, then took the upper crawl tube into the Pit of the Pendulum. He failed to make it back to the platform and had to climb the wall into the Chamber of the Sacred Markers, where he actually did not take very long to complete the objective. However, he stalled excessively in the Room of the Ancient Warriors because he was trying to avoid the armor which he knew had a Temple Guard hiding behind it. When trying the other two suits of armor failed to open any doors, he tried going back into the Chamber to find another way until Dana screamed at him to keep going forward. Following that delay, Jason went into the Room of the Secret Password, not even having to shout out the the password after putting the monkey together (instead of down into the Dark Forest, which did open), and tried climbing the ladder up from the Quicksand Bog instead of bashing through the wall at first. He delayed his capture by a Temple Spirit for a few seconds as well, and eventually got caught with only thirty seconds to go. Even though Dana spent a full 150 seconds screaming at her partner to keep going, she did not pull her weight. She would not make it to the Dark Forest in that amount of time, but she should have made it much further than she did— she went too far down in the Ledges, took the lower crawl tube to the Pit (instead of the upper one, which Jason used) and ran out of time just as she started to pull herself up onto the ledge to get to the Chamber door. The Smashed Printing Plate of Frederick Douglass Part 1 The Smashed Printing Plate of Frederick Douglass Part 2 * This is the first time since Robin Hood and Maid Marian's Silk Ladder that the Red Jaguars, Blue Barracudas, Purple Parrots and Silver Snakes compete in the Steps of Knowledge. * This is the first episode where contestants must attempt to retrieve an artifact placed in the Tomb of the Headless Kings. * When Olmec told everybody where the smashed printing plate was, he incorrectly called that room The Tomb of the Ancient Kings. * This is the only Season 3 episode where both the Red Jaguars and the Purple Parrots advance to the Temple Games. * This was the first episode in Season 3 where a team of Red Jaguars competed in the Temple Run. * This is one of two episodes in season three where no contestants did not enter The Crypt at any point during the run. The other is The Lion-Headed Bracelet of Chandragupta. * Jason did not shout out the password when he was in The Room of the Secret Password. * This was the last time that the Red Jaguars failed to grab the artifact before time expired. Category:Episodes Category:Season 3 Category:Layout XV Category:Artifacts Hidden in the Bottom of the Shaft Category:Red/Blue/Purple/Silver Category:Red Jaguars vs. Purple Parrots Category:Red Jaguars Category:2 Pendants Category:Male Going First Category:Team Run Category:Loss Category:Ran out of time Category:Episodes with Altered Prize Plugs Category:Two Guards Encountered Category:Temple Game Shutouts